Thoughts of the Day 12/2/11
The Day:
Well I had planned to wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to study for my greek test. Next thing I knew it was 8 something and I was late for class. Got to class did the best I could but not sure, probably a C. Seemed like everything went wrong today, but got through it all. Although it seemed like everything went wrong, God seems to be paving the way, probably using difficulties to build my perseverance. Few things that stuck out to me today.
Inclusion in community
There are circles of community all around, but Ozark is a good time and place to analyze it. Some major observations:
1. Community changes, continually, especially at Ozark, every incoming group of students changes the dynamics of the overall community, with personality types, preferences, style, focus, everything changes the community.
2. Inclusion is important or else it isn’t God’s community. God’s rules for community is inclusion and holiness. The gospel is inclusion, the whole idea is reconciling people to God and they join his family, his holy people.
3. Holiness is to be a part of the nature of God’s community. He is holy and is bringing people to him, but because he is holy he can not compromise his holiness. Solution? Make people holy via the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. Holiness in the community is for God, it is the same idea of a husband making himself something good, making himself a blessing for his wife and vice versa. We don’t compromise who we marry and it is a reflection that neither will God. God needs a holy bride, a holy church. On an individual scale holiness’s first priority should not be guiltlessness. In other words, if our first motive to pursue holiness is for feeling good about ourselves then it really isn’t holiness. It may be a fruit that comes from it, that we feel more at ease with ourselves and our lack of sin, but we still sin. Holiness is rather a part of the nature that every individual is supposed to be. God is restoring human holiness. Our holiness is our gift to God, and God’s holiness is a gift to us. However God gave us our holiness, but our holiness is a choice, that is why we have choice. Obedience and holiness seem to be choices. Obedience seems to be in relation to our father-children relationship with him. And Holiness is in relation to our husband-wife relation to him.
The issues come when the community changes, the new people coming in cause upheaval in the dynamics. This takes patience and love to endure the changes, but not just endure but accept, embrace and dive headlong into the new relationships and possibilities, even if they aren’t what we expected.
Now the real problem is when the people entering into the immediate community have false views of what community should be, or simply aren’t living out what they believe about it. The problem is when those who were already in the community are alienated by the new comers. This can happen both ways, either the existing community alienates the new comers or the new comers alienate those who already were. The factor between the two is usually numbers, how many new comers are there and how many are in the pre-existing community. It is extremely important to both be accepting of the other and even embracing.
Now about reasons why people would not be accepting or inclusive:
I Can’t claim that I can see all sides but I can see some. Some reasons are selfishness very simply, this is probably a more over-arching theme. Fear of loss of the current community, and fear of change, fear of losing a relationship to others. However fear is cast out by God, or should be, and if fear rules then it is not love, it becomes manipulation.
There seems to be a dynamic of exclusion by floors or friend circles. There is probably a multi layer reason for this, ranging from fear, selfishness, self service, and possibly pride. If the pride of the community is a personal pride that does not compare this community to that community to derive it’s worth then it is good. But if it’s worth is drawn by the dominate thought of being better than another community than exclusion comes. I can’t personally say how community should look but through scripture we can identify qualities and character of the community and whether or not they line up with scripture.
Opinion here: I think that what it might look like in a more ideal Ozark community, is that there would be a personal pride that comes without comparing (Galatians 6:1-5). That there would be a floor pride that comes without comparison, a dorm pride, and a school pride, and a pride of the people of God.
Pride
The word pride comes with a bad connotation because of our culture over the past several hundred years. But the word a lot of times used means “vainglory”, which is glory in vain, over self, it is empty, because is sees itself as full in regard to others, but it forgets to compare itself with God. True pride that has not been twisted is simply glory. Hebrews says that we are “many sons beingo brought to glory”. True glory is measuring up with out comparison to others.
Quick analogy for pride:
If I compare dirt clods to each other and find the roundest most solid dirt clod, in comparison to the rest, it is still a dirt clod, ugly and inglourious. But when comparing a dirt clod to Gold or marble or anything else beautiful it is not glourious at all. Lets say someone could make all these dirt clods into gold or marble, perfect but not the same, formed into different shapes, they no longer can be compared the stand alone, but they are all of the same material. The same but individual all together.
Pride is the product of seeing oneself as one truly is. Skewed pride is viewing oneself by the wrong criteria and getting a skewed view of oneself. Vainglory is skewed pride. True glory is true pride.
There is also individual exclusion, or group exclusion. Individual is where an individual excludes or alienates themselves based on personal perception and choice. This can range from low self-esteem, negative judgments about others and the community as a whole, and just simply self-absorption.
Pursuing
Absolutely the most frustrating thing EVER. I hate pursuing a girl, it is confusing frustrating and terribly ambiguous. Why can’t we just be acquainted with a girl, spend a little bit of time with them and then proceed to ask them “I find you interesting and am attracted to you, can we spend some time together to see whether or not we should proceed in dating?” then go out on a few dates to get to know each other and if there seems to be not major issues become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Dating today is far too sporadic, and spontaneous. Romance movies do us an injustice and make relationships seem like they come out of chaos and that two people find each other and this miracle happenstance is what makes it meaningful. But this view of a relationship is hollow, self absorbed and not true. I’ll compare and contrast the views
Spontaneous Vs. Intentional:
• Self absorbed vs. outwardly focused- It views it’s importance and existence more important than the world around it and will treat itself as something to be preserved at the cost of everything else. God will preserve it if it is to be and if we cooperate with him in dying to ourselves and serving others. It also has an us-and-them perspective. It is us against the world, there is some truth to this, but it is how can we serve people and give the gospel to the world not defend themselves from the world, the only defending should be of impurities that try to rot the relationship. But people are not what should be kept out. Now people don’t have the right to speak into the relationship unless asked but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about relationships isolating themselves from the world around them
• Hollow vs. meaningful- it is void of meaning. It is existential in that it tries to give value to itself rather than taking on the value that God desires for it. There is some freedom in deriving meaning but it can not affect identity or else it derides us from God’s plan for identity. A relationship should reflect God’s pursuit of us. Romance movies paint that a relationship is a miracle out of happenstance, but it shouldn’t be. The miracle rather should be the mystery of how a man and wife become one flesh and that two broken individuals can join together and love each other regardless of their sin and iniquity. Relationships are purposeful pursuits, the man reflects God and the woman reflects the church. God pursued the individuals in the Church, it wasn’t random happenstance. So men should pursue women purposefully with a plan but with passion. The passion gives them the endurance and perseverance to pursue regardless of how the plan is going. The plan should be loose, and able to change, and it will change.
• True meaning- true meaning and significance in a relationship is that either party was chosen. There was a commitment to pursue and a commitment afterward in being a boyfriend and girlfriend, then there is a commitment in engagement and the final lifelong commitment of marriage.
I don’t understand the pursuit part. It is full of risk, if it’s not worth fighting and suffering for then it can’t be worth much can it? You have to keep a realistic perspective because optimistic will lead you astray and cause you to place hope in something that you don’t yet have.
Growing up in adversity
Jesus says a lot in the beatitudes about people living under adversity. Poverty, injustice, the hungry. Several things and then he says that they are blessed, this has to change our view of what a blessing is. The blessing comes with a promise, that they will be, do or gain something. The meek inherit the earth because they have power but restrain it, and they can rule the earth because they were good stewards of everything that they had authority over in life. I think that we gain a perception that will drive us in a good direction in life, adversity gives us proper perspective. In adversity we gain a proper perspective, we see brokenness and we can understand what should be. When being raised in a perfect home without adversity we see things as perfectly fine and we accept the way things run because we are comfortable, so we don’t strive for certain things and we don’t control ourselves in certain aspects because we never saw that there was any other way of living. But I think following Jesus will bring suffering in these different areas, giving us a meekness and hunger for righteousness. The children who grow up in adversity will hunger deeper, suffering causes great joy to fill it’s place.
Theology from lion king
“he lives in you”
Jesus lives in us and we forget that he is transforming us. Simba is a pathetic representation of his strong, powerful kingly father, and he must be conformed into the image of his father, his king, into a king.
“you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me”
We forget that we are sons and daughters of God, and so we forget that there is even a god in the first place, we forget that we have a father.
Simba is like Jonah, he runs from his calling to rise up as king.
He then goes into the wilderness to try to live without worry. He runs into nala which is like God rebuking him, and calling him back. Jonah was in the belly of the well, and Simba has a time that is a “dark night of the soul” similar to the belly of the fish. It’s metaphor is that it is dark, starry, quiet but full of discontent and conflict and he has his God encounter and then it all turns around.
Pride rock is representation of pride. Pride was good under authority of the good rule, mufasa. But when satan, scar, gets ahold of it, it becomes perverted and desolate.
Scar is also a good example of a depraved human, he refuses to leave his pride, pride rock, because of his pride. He refuses to believe that his pride has turned to vainglory.
Simba takes responsibility, scar is the accuser. Simba’s negliegience got his father killed. Our sin got jesus crucified. But Scar accuses and says that it was his fault, and plants seeds of guilt. The truth is that the father loved the son came to rescue him, the childs negligence was deserving of death, he got himself in a position of death, of being trampled. But the father had mercy and decided that it was worth dying for and risked himself. The resurrection comes through the son, samba. So the resurrection here is not direct but it is there.
Scar dies by his own implementation, his minions turn on him. His attacks get him thrown off a cliff and send him to his impending doom. Satan gets his.
“Truth is in the eye of the beholder” –scar, (satan)
He gives us strength and peace
Glory be to God the father
Forever and ever
Amen
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wisdom Gained on Dating/Relationships
• Don’t focus on getting the Girl, Focus on God’s will, Give up on what is not God’s will, and pursue when he tells you to.
• Don’t get emotionally attached before there is anything there, keep God your source of joy
• Refrain from daydreaming possibilities,
• Read into it, consider signals, then step back and look at it objectively. But don't read into it too much. Balance
• Don’t be blinded by your heart
• Don’t pray too much about the person, can create and unhealthy attachment
• Guard your heart
• Take risks
• Before taking risks, think of the worst case scenario that would actually happen, no fantasy just logical probability.
• Listen to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
• Pray for them, pray in love, that is, pray for them to align with God’s will regardless of what that means for you. But not too much praying, can cause you to dwell on the situation too much.
• When Pursuing, give them space
• Take a hint, step back if you think that is what they want
•Types of people to look out for
o Anger (matthew 5:21-26)
o Addiction (matthew 5:27-30)
o Littered Trail (matthew 5:31-32) (dating guy after guy)
o Verbal Cunning (manipulative) (Matthew 5:33-37)
o Scorekeeping (matthew 5:38-42)
o Warring (Matthew 5:43-48) (looking for a fight)
o Pride (self absorbed) (Matthew 6:1-18)
o Greed (Matthew 6:19-24)
o Fretting (worry) (matthew 6:25-34)
o Judging (Condemning) ( Matthew 7:1-5)
o Being Undiscerning (foolish) (matthew 7:6)
o Hypocrisy (Matthew 7:15-23)
• Reap what you sow. If you sow laziness you won’t get a hardworking individual. Be marginal, attract marginal. Be marginal fool someone to being attracted to you. Both are bad
•Luck out pg18. If you luck out and get someone out of your league
o Boredom:They could have just been bored and wanted a boyfriend
o Annoyance: You will get tired of being pushed to something better all the time, and they will get tired of pushing you
o Regret: you’ll feel left out because they are advancing in work and relationships. They will regret being with you
o Lonelieness: You will be outside of the seriousness parts of their life; they will be embarrassed by you. Being outside of the loop will leave you feeling lonely.
•Illusions (pg 20)
o #1 I know a lot of stuff because I’m doing will in school.
Work hard at helping your education shape you
Am I trying to better myself with my education
o # 2 I’m developing myself by spending a lot of time with the best people
Bad company might corrupt good character but good company doesn’t necessarily enhance bad character
o #3 I attend a lot of church activities, so I’m bound to be with reat people
Going to church does not make you good
o #4 I’m going to model myself after a great Christian so I can be great too
You can’t copy your way to excellence
o #5 If I find the right friend he will make me a better person
You don’t need a friend to bail you out. You need to decide to be different, let God empower you and start making changes
•Steps to becoming a person worth marrying pg 25
o #1 become passionate about God
God is at the center
o #2 Know the truth
Know the truth, lay aside illusion, discern truth from lie, and mature in Christ
o #3 live in freedom
Free from sin(you may still sin but not a slave not in bondage to it) free to say no to temptation, though at times you may still choose to say yes.
Free from legalism
o #4 Become passionate about others
People are the joy, serving them is serving Christ. Let God’s love for people rub off on you and become your genuine love for people.
Consider others better than yourself
1 thessalonians 2:19-20
o #5 Become passionate about your responsibilities
With diligence and joy
o #6 Find a greater cause
A mission
What am I here to change? What Am I here to build? What do I want to leave behind when I graduate? When I leave my first job (ministry)? When I die?
o #7 Learn the power of redemption
Forgive and give second chances
•Are they ready? Pg 32 Illusions will fade as he gets older
o #1 A person’s focus on themself is only natural and this will fade as they get older
o #2 People who are responsible in school will be responsible in work, marriage and parenting
o #3 Clean cut and sharp on the outside means decent on the inside
o #4 If they’re spending a lot of time with me it means they think I’m special
o #5 We’ve never had a fight so we must be in harmony
•Finding the right one
o Biblical Principles
o Your experience
o The wisdom of others
• Clues to finding a person worth marrying
o Purity
o Peace loving
o Considerate
o Submissive
o Full of Mercy and good fruit
o Impartial (no favoritism)
o Sincere (without hypocrisy)
•Creating a Succesful Christian Marriage
o Pg. 101 “When you date, the search isn’t just for someone you can live with. Instead, the real search should be for someone you can’t live without.”
o Twelve Rules for Building Self Confidence
1. Focus on your potential instead of your limitations
2. Determine to know the truth about yourself
3. Distinguish between who you are and what you do
4. Find something you like to do and do well, then do it over and over
5. Replace self-criticism with regular positive self-talk
6. Replace fear of failure with clear pictures of yourself functioning successfully and happily
7. Dare to be a little eccentric
8. Make the best possible peace with you parents
9. Determine to integrate the body and spirit
10. Determine to live above neurotic guilt
11. Cultivate people who help you grow
12. Refuse to allow rejection to keep you from taking the initiative with people
• Don’t focus on getting the Girl, Focus on God’s will, Give up on what is not God’s will, and pursue when he tells you to.
• Don’t get emotionally attached before there is anything there, keep God your source of joy
• Refrain from daydreaming possibilities,
• Read into it, consider signals, then step back and look at it objectively. But don't read into it too much. Balance
• Don’t be blinded by your heart
• Don’t pray too much about the person, can create and unhealthy attachment
• Guard your heart
• Take risks
• Before taking risks, think of the worst case scenario that would actually happen, no fantasy just logical probability.
• Listen to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
• Pray for them, pray in love, that is, pray for them to align with God’s will regardless of what that means for you. But not too much praying, can cause you to dwell on the situation too much.
• When Pursuing, give them space
• Take a hint, step back if you think that is what they want
•Types of people to look out for
o Anger (matthew 5:21-26)
o Addiction (matthew 5:27-30)
o Littered Trail (matthew 5:31-32) (dating guy after guy)
o Verbal Cunning (manipulative) (Matthew 5:33-37)
o Scorekeeping (matthew 5:38-42)
o Warring (Matthew 5:43-48) (looking for a fight)
o Pride (self absorbed) (Matthew 6:1-18)
o Greed (Matthew 6:19-24)
o Fretting (worry) (matthew 6:25-34)
o Judging (Condemning) ( Matthew 7:1-5)
o Being Undiscerning (foolish) (matthew 7:6)
o Hypocrisy (Matthew 7:15-23)
• Reap what you sow. If you sow laziness you won’t get a hardworking individual. Be marginal, attract marginal. Be marginal fool someone to being attracted to you. Both are bad
•Luck out pg18. If you luck out and get someone out of your league
o Boredom:They could have just been bored and wanted a boyfriend
o Annoyance: You will get tired of being pushed to something better all the time, and they will get tired of pushing you
o Regret: you’ll feel left out because they are advancing in work and relationships. They will regret being with you
o Lonelieness: You will be outside of the seriousness parts of their life; they will be embarrassed by you. Being outside of the loop will leave you feeling lonely.
•Illusions (pg 20)
o #1 I know a lot of stuff because I’m doing will in school.
Work hard at helping your education shape you
Am I trying to better myself with my education
o # 2 I’m developing myself by spending a lot of time with the best people
Bad company might corrupt good character but good company doesn’t necessarily enhance bad character
o #3 I attend a lot of church activities, so I’m bound to be with reat people
Going to church does not make you good
o #4 I’m going to model myself after a great Christian so I can be great too
You can’t copy your way to excellence
o #5 If I find the right friend he will make me a better person
You don’t need a friend to bail you out. You need to decide to be different, let God empower you and start making changes
•Steps to becoming a person worth marrying pg 25
o #1 become passionate about God
God is at the center
o #2 Know the truth
Know the truth, lay aside illusion, discern truth from lie, and mature in Christ
o #3 live in freedom
Free from sin(you may still sin but not a slave not in bondage to it) free to say no to temptation, though at times you may still choose to say yes.
Free from legalism
o #4 Become passionate about others
People are the joy, serving them is serving Christ. Let God’s love for people rub off on you and become your genuine love for people.
Consider others better than yourself
1 thessalonians 2:19-20
o #5 Become passionate about your responsibilities
With diligence and joy
o #6 Find a greater cause
A mission
What am I here to change? What Am I here to build? What do I want to leave behind when I graduate? When I leave my first job (ministry)? When I die?
o #7 Learn the power of redemption
Forgive and give second chances
•Are they ready? Pg 32 Illusions will fade as he gets older
o #1 A person’s focus on themself is only natural and this will fade as they get older
o #2 People who are responsible in school will be responsible in work, marriage and parenting
o #3 Clean cut and sharp on the outside means decent on the inside
o #4 If they’re spending a lot of time with me it means they think I’m special
o #5 We’ve never had a fight so we must be in harmony
•Finding the right one
o Biblical Principles
o Your experience
o The wisdom of others
• Clues to finding a person worth marrying
o Purity
o Peace loving
o Considerate
o Submissive
o Full of Mercy and good fruit
o Impartial (no favoritism)
o Sincere (without hypocrisy)
•Creating a Succesful Christian Marriage
o Pg. 101 “When you date, the search isn’t just for someone you can live with. Instead, the real search should be for someone you can’t live without.”
o Twelve Rules for Building Self Confidence
1. Focus on your potential instead of your limitations
2. Determine to know the truth about yourself
3. Distinguish between who you are and what you do
4. Find something you like to do and do well, then do it over and over
5. Replace self-criticism with regular positive self-talk
6. Replace fear of failure with clear pictures of yourself functioning successfully and happily
7. Dare to be a little eccentric
8. Make the best possible peace with you parents
9. Determine to integrate the body and spirit
10. Determine to live above neurotic guilt
11. Cultivate people who help you grow
12. Refuse to allow rejection to keep you from taking the initiative with people
Thoughts of The Day 11/24/11 Thanksgiving
Thoughts of The Day
11/24/11
Thanksgiving
Observations:
Information overload. Staying at the Lang’s up in Grinell, Iowa. The worst thing about being here is the fact that their family is so freakin’ legit and I know that eventually, Jesse is going to leave Ozark and go to Iowa state. I love that guy, he is one devoted and loyal man of God. Had thanksgiving dinner and then a Long, long, discussion with a friend? Of the langs/younkins, not really sure who. A lot of it is semantics, learned something from him though, that is, that highly objective thinkers can easily think that they are not scarred or wounded by something just because they don’t have emotion tied to their thoughts and provocations. I am a highly objective thinker, and this was revealing. All theological issues are heart issues, and we tend to think that heart equals emotion. Well thinkers just don’t experience emotions the same way if at all, or at least with much more rarity, logical thoughts and streams are what we function with most of the time. It is the difference of thinkers and feelers in the Myers Briggs personality test. Theological issues that thinkers come in contact with are heart issues, just in a different matter. Time for an example:
If I, as a thinker, have an issue with believing that Christianity, or rather Christ, is the only way to heaven, that my salvation (soteriology) is the only right salvation that will actually save. Let’s say my issue with salvation leads me to look at the validity of other religions, that others are actually going to heaven, it is very apparent that something afflicted my theological comfort. I would immediately point to hell, hell was the problem. The truth of hell sucks, and I would use much more crass words because of the great sorrow of the truth of hell. No one wants to condemn people, and that’s exactly what Christians have to pronounce, sadly, and we have missed out on this because of the generations before us which burnt and scorched the world with talk of hell. The heart issue is hell, it just seems to harsh, and we don’t want to abandon our meaning or our God so we look to try and deconstruct hell, into little pieces, pack it away in a closet, we accept the validity of other scriptures (qu’ran, book of Mormon, ba’hai scriptures, etc.), and we unpack the other religions that we had packed away accepting and tolerating them. After a while we don’t realize that you can’t pack the fire of hell away in a closet, because it will burn down the house and you with it. The problem we thinkers can have with our heart issues are much like mind issues really, with hell we have trouble reconciling, and logically believing that an eternal punishment called hell could come from God if he is good. Our heart issues are largely separated from emotion, this doesn’t mean that these are heart issues. The heart is the center of belief, the center of what we accept to be true as well as well as where emotions and pain and love are held and where they flow from.
For all the thinkers we need to be objective to the fact that we can think that we are being objective when we really are not being objective. All it is, is that we have learned how to think without feeling our heart, but the issues still surfaces, regardless of our feeling it or not
Hell:
Regarding God and hell, we cannot get rid of hell. First of all because it is true and it is real, secondarily even if we did, we would make God less good. We would think a lack of punishment would make God more good. Well it would make him more likable but not more good. God is good and holy and requires justice, for himself but primarily for us. Love considers others more than themselves, God is love and considers us more, thinks about us more, if God is consumed with concern for us, which is apparent in scripture, he is doing everything he can to save us, then his justice concerns us. The biggest issue with justice is that we are all guilty, we are all sinners and all deserve the price which is death; eternal death; hell. So how can God be seeking justice for humans if humans are the ones guilty, regardless of outside influence that Satan brings. He is guilty alone but we have cohorts with him regardless of our understanding that that is what our sin does. Hell then is a deserving justice for all men, but if all men are thrown into hell then there is no vindication for anyone, for all are perpetrators and all are victims. But through faith in Christ, grace is administered, which is the wiping away of sins continuously, all sins of the past of an individual’s life, and the sins that are committed or omitted afterward during the process of sanctification. Because God is infinitely good and holy, sin is infinitely offensive. So we have these people able the escape the well-deserved judgment, now we have a people that are becoming holy, but will not reach holiness in these bodies, because of the fall, and the fallen world around them, it is impossible to be 100% holy. But now we have a people being redeemed and forgiven, so now the people going to hell are going to hell to pay the price. And their perpetration are things like bringing others to hell, sinning against others, and sinning against God, so God is taking up the cause of the guilty as well as the innocent, who are innocent by the grace of God.
Now the problem of hell is that we want the bad people to go there and not the people that we consider good moral people. The issue there is that the ‘bad people’ are really only guilty of a civil badness, a badness decided by the majority of society, people like Hitler, Stalin etc. But we fail to acknowledge that we are fallen people, and we have fallen worlds, fallen societies, and fallen minds. We fail to realize that our own badness makes smaller badness seem like not so bad after all. Our minds are distorted, we as unholy creatures, unholy products of the fall, cannot see the full perpetration of ‘small sins’ to a holy God, or the devastation that ‘small sins’ bring to the lives of others and how they contribute to the badness of society. We need a god sized lens, like oh, say the bible, God’s word, his revelation of our sin, to us. We get self-defensive when people start saying things like this because it means that we would be thrown in lot with Hitler, rapists and all the real bad lot, when we think we are only kind of bad. The truth is God is God and we are not, judging the fairness of hell based on civil morality, suggests that we are building and governing our own kingdom/democracy/(place type of government or lack-there-of here), when the reality is that God owns everything and he will build his kingdom, regardless of whether we are on board, or even if we are in the way of it.
From the Christian perspective we however can’t imagine why someone would want to oppose the kingdom of God, it’s just too darned good, who wants to oppose that and not be a part of it? Well, the answer is self-idolaters. Fallen minds are rebellious and don’t like the idea of being subject to anyone.
As Christians we can’t argue it away, Jesus said it, scriptures say it and confirm it, there is too much fire talk. Really don’t want to get into specifics about hell, fairness of eternal punishment, just haven’t thought about it enough or studied it enough.
Skepticism:
Another lesson learned today, skepticism needs boundaries. Within the Christian Context, in the body of believers, I’m talking honest to goodness, fruit tested, faith in Christ, works out of faith, bible literate, devoted, loving Christians, in this context, skepticism needs to take a back seat. We limit our learning with skepticism, especially during a sermon, a talk, things of the like. If we take our skepticism to the community, then there cannot be a one in mindedness, there cannot be trust, there can’t be redeemed human relationships if you think everyone is out to rub false doctrine off on you. The truth is that people will harm your theology, not by much but they probably will, but we aren’t saved by theology, we are saved by faith. Our theology is easily repaired in comparison to relationships with people. We may realize that we changed something we believed for a dumb reason. Now this is not to be lackadaisical about our theological doctrine, it is just to say that outside of the context of community with believers it is useless. If we are one man island Christians then we are disobeying God, and useless. The Church is our home and what has been decided to be used by God. Skepticism cannot become king because then we elevate truth above people, and we separate truth from the context of humans, truth is supposed to live in the human heart, and our sharpening each other through discussion and love and challenging is what makes the truth in our heart secure and helps to manifest it into action. It helps root the truth in our hearts through love, and it helps for the faith in the truth to sprout and grow out of that into our actions and produce fruit.
The other problem with crowned-as-king skepticism is that we deny God, through the avenues that he chooses to reveal, teach manifest, whatever it is that he chooses to do. Skepticism, in the context of community, limits God in people and his work in them, it denies the power of the holy spirit to administer truth to us through them, it also downplays the holy spirit in us, and his ability to help us discern and protect the truth in our hearts, he is the reason we can see truth, not our own perception of truth, we can’t do anything right on our own except go to hell in a stylish fashion. When we disbelieve Christians via extreme skepticism, we deny the Holy Spirit’s power to allow others to see the truth, and we deny the ability of that very spirit in ourselves to allow us to see the truth and we exalt our own individual ability to see the truth. It becomes self-idolatry without our even recognizing it.
Christianity and Religious systems:
People get Christianity and religion all wrong. We misunderstand it’s purpose, especially Christianity. Other religions are all soteriological(study of salvation) methods, methods to save ourselves as humans from whatever the badness is (that all humans all somehow recognize). Salvation through works or goodness gained, whatever it is, it is based on human mechanism to achieve salvation.
Christ and Christianity are separate, sort of. Christ is not contained inside of Christianity, he is independent of it, but he chooses to be a part of it, obviously. In short, Christ and his salvation and works can exist outside of Christianity, but Christianity cannot exist outside of Christ, or without Christ involved with it. If it does exist outside of Christ or Christ is not a part of it, then it is not Christianity, it is rather something different.
Time for a metaphysical analogy to explain:
Or a policeman, a policeman is meant to be under the laws of the land, and with the purpose to protect and make things right. If the policeman breaks the laws or disregard them completely he is not acting as a policeman, and if he uses his gun, to kill the innocent, then he is not protecting, he raises up the wicked by taking bribes and allowing drug cartels to go on existing, and oppresses the poor with his authority, then he is no longer a policeman. He is in a sense because he still looks like one, but In symbolism of this travesty and distortion of purpose he is stripped of his badge, uniform, authority, gun, everything, and thrown into prison for his crime. He is made to be what he truly is, and that is a criminal and not a policeman.
The policeman is the Church when it goes astray, like, oh say the crusades of every other major deviation. The Policeman (The Church), to continue being a policeman (The Church), must exist inside the context of the law (requirements of being the Church and being a Christian), and inside the policeman must be the right motive (to do and make right for Christ, and for people).
So Christianity can be evil, if it goes outside of the context of the very things that make it what it is, which by definition, makes it no longer what it is supposed to be, it becomes something else. If I melt down a car into a block of steel then it is no longer a car.
But Christianity within its proper context is good. Christians are saved by faith not works. Our works are a manifestation of our faith. So what is this Christian system? This Christianity? It is a system, that’s all really. So why not just choose Christ and him be enough? Well he is enough, but systems and organization help us be better Christians, helps us love each other, love the world, and especially love Christ better. In a system we are under authority, we are in community, we are under preaching and teaching, we are in a context of corporate worship. In a personal sense Christianity would be our spiritual disciplines, things we do during certain situations, if we are considering heavy options we fast and pray, we discuss. If we are damaging the community, we are rebuked and go into solitude. If we are habitually sinning, we confess, we find accountability. It helps us live out our faith to a greater degree than we could on our own.
So the next issue is that when we try to just follow Christ we end up with a new Christianity anyway, new systems come into place. And as American Christians we realize that the last thing that we need to do is divide even more. Rather we should delve into the community, delve into the system and fix it, make it better, we need to be the right kind of people so that the right kind of ideas and things will rub off onto the community and off onto the system, refining it. When we start a new system we just create a new system that is good at things that the old system was bad at and is bad at the things that the old system was good at. We come not closer to the truth or improvement of our faith. We just jump to a more comfortable system. One that meets the needs of our longings that we wish the old system of Christianity would fill, and we ignore the old important ones because we feel they are unimportant, and we ignore them because we are spoiled that we always had them, and we feel like we have had enough of the old ones to last a lifetime, our lifetime at least, and because of this we raise up a new generation that is sick of the system we create.
We need people devoted to the system created by believers, not devoted above Christ, the Church or anything else, but at least to the point that we are willing to stick to it to see it become better. Are we just looking to gain something from the religious system of Christianity and have our desires and needs met or are we willing to stick with it and pour into it to make it better for the community as a whole.
The problem happens when people trust in the system too much, beyond faith, and faith becomes nullified, and we trust in the system and not Christ.
Trust in the system, go to hell. Trust in God, be saved by God by grace in faith
11/24/11
Thanksgiving
Observations:
Information overload. Staying at the Lang’s up in Grinell, Iowa. The worst thing about being here is the fact that their family is so freakin’ legit and I know that eventually, Jesse is going to leave Ozark and go to Iowa state. I love that guy, he is one devoted and loyal man of God. Had thanksgiving dinner and then a Long, long, discussion with a friend? Of the langs/younkins, not really sure who. A lot of it is semantics, learned something from him though, that is, that highly objective thinkers can easily think that they are not scarred or wounded by something just because they don’t have emotion tied to their thoughts and provocations. I am a highly objective thinker, and this was revealing. All theological issues are heart issues, and we tend to think that heart equals emotion. Well thinkers just don’t experience emotions the same way if at all, or at least with much more rarity, logical thoughts and streams are what we function with most of the time. It is the difference of thinkers and feelers in the Myers Briggs personality test. Theological issues that thinkers come in contact with are heart issues, just in a different matter. Time for an example:
If I, as a thinker, have an issue with believing that Christianity, or rather Christ, is the only way to heaven, that my salvation (soteriology) is the only right salvation that will actually save. Let’s say my issue with salvation leads me to look at the validity of other religions, that others are actually going to heaven, it is very apparent that something afflicted my theological comfort. I would immediately point to hell, hell was the problem. The truth of hell sucks, and I would use much more crass words because of the great sorrow of the truth of hell. No one wants to condemn people, and that’s exactly what Christians have to pronounce, sadly, and we have missed out on this because of the generations before us which burnt and scorched the world with talk of hell. The heart issue is hell, it just seems to harsh, and we don’t want to abandon our meaning or our God so we look to try and deconstruct hell, into little pieces, pack it away in a closet, we accept the validity of other scriptures (qu’ran, book of Mormon, ba’hai scriptures, etc.), and we unpack the other religions that we had packed away accepting and tolerating them. After a while we don’t realize that you can’t pack the fire of hell away in a closet, because it will burn down the house and you with it. The problem we thinkers can have with our heart issues are much like mind issues really, with hell we have trouble reconciling, and logically believing that an eternal punishment called hell could come from God if he is good. Our heart issues are largely separated from emotion, this doesn’t mean that these are heart issues. The heart is the center of belief, the center of what we accept to be true as well as well as where emotions and pain and love are held and where they flow from.
For all the thinkers we need to be objective to the fact that we can think that we are being objective when we really are not being objective. All it is, is that we have learned how to think without feeling our heart, but the issues still surfaces, regardless of our feeling it or not
Hell:
Regarding God and hell, we cannot get rid of hell. First of all because it is true and it is real, secondarily even if we did, we would make God less good. We would think a lack of punishment would make God more good. Well it would make him more likable but not more good. God is good and holy and requires justice, for himself but primarily for us. Love considers others more than themselves, God is love and considers us more, thinks about us more, if God is consumed with concern for us, which is apparent in scripture, he is doing everything he can to save us, then his justice concerns us. The biggest issue with justice is that we are all guilty, we are all sinners and all deserve the price which is death; eternal death; hell. So how can God be seeking justice for humans if humans are the ones guilty, regardless of outside influence that Satan brings. He is guilty alone but we have cohorts with him regardless of our understanding that that is what our sin does. Hell then is a deserving justice for all men, but if all men are thrown into hell then there is no vindication for anyone, for all are perpetrators and all are victims. But through faith in Christ, grace is administered, which is the wiping away of sins continuously, all sins of the past of an individual’s life, and the sins that are committed or omitted afterward during the process of sanctification. Because God is infinitely good and holy, sin is infinitely offensive. So we have these people able the escape the well-deserved judgment, now we have a people that are becoming holy, but will not reach holiness in these bodies, because of the fall, and the fallen world around them, it is impossible to be 100% holy. But now we have a people being redeemed and forgiven, so now the people going to hell are going to hell to pay the price. And their perpetration are things like bringing others to hell, sinning against others, and sinning against God, so God is taking up the cause of the guilty as well as the innocent, who are innocent by the grace of God.
Now the problem of hell is that we want the bad people to go there and not the people that we consider good moral people. The issue there is that the ‘bad people’ are really only guilty of a civil badness, a badness decided by the majority of society, people like Hitler, Stalin etc. But we fail to acknowledge that we are fallen people, and we have fallen worlds, fallen societies, and fallen minds. We fail to realize that our own badness makes smaller badness seem like not so bad after all. Our minds are distorted, we as unholy creatures, unholy products of the fall, cannot see the full perpetration of ‘small sins’ to a holy God, or the devastation that ‘small sins’ bring to the lives of others and how they contribute to the badness of society. We need a god sized lens, like oh, say the bible, God’s word, his revelation of our sin, to us. We get self-defensive when people start saying things like this because it means that we would be thrown in lot with Hitler, rapists and all the real bad lot, when we think we are only kind of bad. The truth is God is God and we are not, judging the fairness of hell based on civil morality, suggests that we are building and governing our own kingdom/democracy/(place type of government or lack-there-of here), when the reality is that God owns everything and he will build his kingdom, regardless of whether we are on board, or even if we are in the way of it.
From the Christian perspective we however can’t imagine why someone would want to oppose the kingdom of God, it’s just too darned good, who wants to oppose that and not be a part of it? Well, the answer is self-idolaters. Fallen minds are rebellious and don’t like the idea of being subject to anyone.
As Christians we can’t argue it away, Jesus said it, scriptures say it and confirm it, there is too much fire talk. Really don’t want to get into specifics about hell, fairness of eternal punishment, just haven’t thought about it enough or studied it enough.
Skepticism:
Another lesson learned today, skepticism needs boundaries. Within the Christian Context, in the body of believers, I’m talking honest to goodness, fruit tested, faith in Christ, works out of faith, bible literate, devoted, loving Christians, in this context, skepticism needs to take a back seat. We limit our learning with skepticism, especially during a sermon, a talk, things of the like. If we take our skepticism to the community, then there cannot be a one in mindedness, there cannot be trust, there can’t be redeemed human relationships if you think everyone is out to rub false doctrine off on you. The truth is that people will harm your theology, not by much but they probably will, but we aren’t saved by theology, we are saved by faith. Our theology is easily repaired in comparison to relationships with people. We may realize that we changed something we believed for a dumb reason. Now this is not to be lackadaisical about our theological doctrine, it is just to say that outside of the context of community with believers it is useless. If we are one man island Christians then we are disobeying God, and useless. The Church is our home and what has been decided to be used by God. Skepticism cannot become king because then we elevate truth above people, and we separate truth from the context of humans, truth is supposed to live in the human heart, and our sharpening each other through discussion and love and challenging is what makes the truth in our heart secure and helps to manifest it into action. It helps root the truth in our hearts through love, and it helps for the faith in the truth to sprout and grow out of that into our actions and produce fruit.
The other problem with crowned-as-king skepticism is that we deny God, through the avenues that he chooses to reveal, teach manifest, whatever it is that he chooses to do. Skepticism, in the context of community, limits God in people and his work in them, it denies the power of the holy spirit to administer truth to us through them, it also downplays the holy spirit in us, and his ability to help us discern and protect the truth in our hearts, he is the reason we can see truth, not our own perception of truth, we can’t do anything right on our own except go to hell in a stylish fashion. When we disbelieve Christians via extreme skepticism, we deny the Holy Spirit’s power to allow others to see the truth, and we deny the ability of that very spirit in ourselves to allow us to see the truth and we exalt our own individual ability to see the truth. It becomes self-idolatry without our even recognizing it.
Christianity and Religious systems:
People get Christianity and religion all wrong. We misunderstand it’s purpose, especially Christianity. Other religions are all soteriological(study of salvation) methods, methods to save ourselves as humans from whatever the badness is (that all humans all somehow recognize). Salvation through works or goodness gained, whatever it is, it is based on human mechanism to achieve salvation.
Christ and Christianity are separate, sort of. Christ is not contained inside of Christianity, he is independent of it, but he chooses to be a part of it, obviously. In short, Christ and his salvation and works can exist outside of Christianity, but Christianity cannot exist outside of Christ, or without Christ involved with it. If it does exist outside of Christ or Christ is not a part of it, then it is not Christianity, it is rather something different.
Time for a metaphysical analogy to explain:
Or a policeman, a policeman is meant to be under the laws of the land, and with the purpose to protect and make things right. If the policeman breaks the laws or disregard them completely he is not acting as a policeman, and if he uses his gun, to kill the innocent, then he is not protecting, he raises up the wicked by taking bribes and allowing drug cartels to go on existing, and oppresses the poor with his authority, then he is no longer a policeman. He is in a sense because he still looks like one, but In symbolism of this travesty and distortion of purpose he is stripped of his badge, uniform, authority, gun, everything, and thrown into prison for his crime. He is made to be what he truly is, and that is a criminal and not a policeman.
The policeman is the Church when it goes astray, like, oh say the crusades of every other major deviation. The Policeman (The Church), to continue being a policeman (The Church), must exist inside the context of the law (requirements of being the Church and being a Christian), and inside the policeman must be the right motive (to do and make right for Christ, and for people).
So Christianity can be evil, if it goes outside of the context of the very things that make it what it is, which by definition, makes it no longer what it is supposed to be, it becomes something else. If I melt down a car into a block of steel then it is no longer a car.
But Christianity within its proper context is good. Christians are saved by faith not works. Our works are a manifestation of our faith. So what is this Christian system? This Christianity? It is a system, that’s all really. So why not just choose Christ and him be enough? Well he is enough, but systems and organization help us be better Christians, helps us love each other, love the world, and especially love Christ better. In a system we are under authority, we are in community, we are under preaching and teaching, we are in a context of corporate worship. In a personal sense Christianity would be our spiritual disciplines, things we do during certain situations, if we are considering heavy options we fast and pray, we discuss. If we are damaging the community, we are rebuked and go into solitude. If we are habitually sinning, we confess, we find accountability. It helps us live out our faith to a greater degree than we could on our own.
So the next issue is that when we try to just follow Christ we end up with a new Christianity anyway, new systems come into place. And as American Christians we realize that the last thing that we need to do is divide even more. Rather we should delve into the community, delve into the system and fix it, make it better, we need to be the right kind of people so that the right kind of ideas and things will rub off onto the community and off onto the system, refining it. When we start a new system we just create a new system that is good at things that the old system was bad at and is bad at the things that the old system was good at. We come not closer to the truth or improvement of our faith. We just jump to a more comfortable system. One that meets the needs of our longings that we wish the old system of Christianity would fill, and we ignore the old important ones because we feel they are unimportant, and we ignore them because we are spoiled that we always had them, and we feel like we have had enough of the old ones to last a lifetime, our lifetime at least, and because of this we raise up a new generation that is sick of the system we create.
We need people devoted to the system created by believers, not devoted above Christ, the Church or anything else, but at least to the point that we are willing to stick to it to see it become better. Are we just looking to gain something from the religious system of Christianity and have our desires and needs met or are we willing to stick with it and pour into it to make it better for the community as a whole.
The problem happens when people trust in the system too much, beyond faith, and faith becomes nullified, and we trust in the system and not Christ.
Trust in the system, go to hell. Trust in God, be saved by God by grace in faith
Thoughts of The Day NMC & bus ride
Thoughts of The Day
NMC & bus ride
Questions
What is it in people that creates a social barrier?
What is the meaning that God wants us to draw out of created things?
What is it about persecution that creates natural respect?
Does Persecution of the Church validate what we believe?
What is it in people that creates a social barrier? This one is hard to figure out, dealing with humans which are complicated beyond understanding. We can gain a glimpse into the hearts of men and gain a general understanding but we can’t fully know. Proverbs 20:1 says the heart of a man is a deep well, but the man of understanding draws it out. There are introverts and extroverts but these don’t necessarily create barriers. The barrier is when someone puts up a wall in their mind based on a stereotype, history with people or a type of people. This wall in their mind, creates these social barriers. There are probably several reasons why these sets are in place. First of all it can be learned, it is a barrier they always lived with, where they probably learned it from their parents or peers or whoever. It creates a mental set, where they are ignorant that there is even another way to see things or another way to live. Secondly it could be a stigma that is created based on past experiences or knowledge. E.G. I knew someone like that before and I didn’t enjoy them/like them/ it ended badly. So with these past experiences we associate people with other people based on past experiences and we invite them into our lives or block them out of our lives based on this. This is not fair to people, to brothers and sisters because they may need us and we may be missing out on opportunities as well as good relationships. This is not fair to non-believers because they need Jesus and it is wrong to let ourselves get in the way of that. We must tear down the walls that plague our communities, that plague the Church.
Another way that people put up walls is by being elitist, whether or not they see it that way. For me to structure my life around specific people because of their image that pleases me or their personality that pleases me is wrong. As Christians we were called into the church, into community, God’s community, his structure not our own structure, it is his kingdom and we let him shape our lives from the inside of us, to the people outside of us. When we pick and choose people within the community to form our own sub-community we may be damaging the Church. This is different from concentric circles of community. This is not to say that having some close friends and acquaintances. Introverts will tend to have a few close friends and extroverts will tend to have tons of shallow friendships. Introverts will have several Close friends like maybe 5-10 but not a ton of acquaintences, extroverts will tend to have a ton of acquaintances but just 1-3 very close friends. But the difference between all this is an unwillingness to allow others into your life and into your circle, you segregate. Most people do this and are unwilling to acknowledge that they do. Even I have a tendency to do this. These segregated social sub-circles can be based on a common way of thinking, attractiveness, style, culture, nearly anything. They are unhealthy for the Church. Now this is not to say that we should treat our existing relationships frivolously, in fact we should be intentional about people that we pour into, and people that pour into us, but not so intentional that if they don’t work out that we reject opportunities with mentors or disciples. It is an openness to God’s will and peoples need/desire. It is an openness to let the community be as it should and not how I want it to be. When we segregate and create cliques without opportunity we are creating our own kingdom based on our preferences rather than letting God build his Kingdom among us.
NMC & bus ride
Questions
What is it in people that creates a social barrier?
What is the meaning that God wants us to draw out of created things?
What is it about persecution that creates natural respect?
Does Persecution of the Church validate what we believe?
What is it in people that creates a social barrier? This one is hard to figure out, dealing with humans which are complicated beyond understanding. We can gain a glimpse into the hearts of men and gain a general understanding but we can’t fully know. Proverbs 20:1 says the heart of a man is a deep well, but the man of understanding draws it out. There are introverts and extroverts but these don’t necessarily create barriers. The barrier is when someone puts up a wall in their mind based on a stereotype, history with people or a type of people. This wall in their mind, creates these social barriers. There are probably several reasons why these sets are in place. First of all it can be learned, it is a barrier they always lived with, where they probably learned it from their parents or peers or whoever. It creates a mental set, where they are ignorant that there is even another way to see things or another way to live. Secondly it could be a stigma that is created based on past experiences or knowledge. E.G. I knew someone like that before and I didn’t enjoy them/like them/ it ended badly. So with these past experiences we associate people with other people based on past experiences and we invite them into our lives or block them out of our lives based on this. This is not fair to people, to brothers and sisters because they may need us and we may be missing out on opportunities as well as good relationships. This is not fair to non-believers because they need Jesus and it is wrong to let ourselves get in the way of that. We must tear down the walls that plague our communities, that plague the Church.
Another way that people put up walls is by being elitist, whether or not they see it that way. For me to structure my life around specific people because of their image that pleases me or their personality that pleases me is wrong. As Christians we were called into the church, into community, God’s community, his structure not our own structure, it is his kingdom and we let him shape our lives from the inside of us, to the people outside of us. When we pick and choose people within the community to form our own sub-community we may be damaging the Church. This is different from concentric circles of community. This is not to say that having some close friends and acquaintances. Introverts will tend to have a few close friends and extroverts will tend to have tons of shallow friendships. Introverts will have several Close friends like maybe 5-10 but not a ton of acquaintences, extroverts will tend to have a ton of acquaintances but just 1-3 very close friends. But the difference between all this is an unwillingness to allow others into your life and into your circle, you segregate. Most people do this and are unwilling to acknowledge that they do. Even I have a tendency to do this. These segregated social sub-circles can be based on a common way of thinking, attractiveness, style, culture, nearly anything. They are unhealthy for the Church. Now this is not to say that we should treat our existing relationships frivolously, in fact we should be intentional about people that we pour into, and people that pour into us, but not so intentional that if they don’t work out that we reject opportunities with mentors or disciples. It is an openness to God’s will and peoples need/desire. It is an openness to let the community be as it should and not how I want it to be. When we segregate and create cliques without opportunity we are creating our own kingdom based on our preferences rather than letting God build his Kingdom among us.
Thoughts of the Day NMC 11/19/11
Thoughts of the Day
NMC
11/19/11
Workshops weren’t too cognitively stimulating for some reason. Skipped out on the third set of workshops, met mike and donna, victor’s friends.
The things that interested me most were questions from my own mind about certain aspects of community and social systems. It seems when people end up in new situations something else comes out of them, maybe motives or true beliefs about people come out. People tend to grow closer to some people but become more stand-offish to others. It very well could be people being intimidated, but that seems the arrogant and egocentric answer.
It saddens me to see that in the Church so many Christians hold contempt for each other, and leave up social barriers that should be torn down and destroyed. Ignore, glare, avoid at our brothers and sisters, yes these are very superficial expressions and seemingly innocent, but they reveal the depth of the problem. There is a type of judgment that is perfectly fine, a judgment call about people, not a stereotype but an understanding that you do not hold to, it is just a filter that you go into an interaction with. But if we try to keep this filter permanent then we do an injustice and treat a brother or sister wrongly. We must be careful not to create an us and them theology of people.
I’m not quite sure why but when Christians are raised in the Church there is something about them that they just don’t understand about people. When people were raised outside the church or raised on the mission field they just get it. They understand how important people are, they get the love of God. That every moment you have with someone is an opportunity, and not even an opportunity for self.
When we spend time with people, it should be for them and their sake. Even when we do something, and we say it is for Christ’s sake, this seems wrong. Christ genuinely cared for people, it was not a means to an end. God loves his creation that he made. If love people as a means to an end, is it really love? If we get a desired result, we are getting something out of it, and we are doing it to see that something. Yes it is good to see people baptized and confess Jesus as Lord, because all this means that they are entering in the family of God and will be with God and us forever. But Love can’t be a tool, Love should be the nature of Christians. If love is a tool, then it isn’t love. Love is doing what is best for others regardless of what it means for me.
Obligation vs. Love
– Love should be our nature, have Christ’s nature of Love points to Jesus. If we are like Christ then our life points to Christ.
Love as Device vs. nature
Obligation thinking- Makes us cut the Gospel short. When we think of mere tasks that we are obligated to fulfill, we think in this for that, consumerism love. Love is like money, and I only have so much money, type thinking.
Acto of service = build a man a house
Payment = Coming to Jesus
So if I build a man a house then he owes me to come to Jesus.
But if love isn’t a tool, obligation or currency then it functions entirely different.
I love people, I couldn’t love people before, but because of the time I’ve spent with God and the participation with him of his sanctification of my heart, soul, and mind I am a new creation.
I love this man, so I do what is best for him because I love him. I give him what his body needs, what his heart needs and what his soul and mind need. Overall I give him Jesus, Jesus is what is best for him. Jesus is a gift not a product. In the love as Obligation model I pay currency (love), to the man (people), so that he will take a product (jesus) off of my hands or that he will adopt a way of living, or an authority under which to live because I bribed him with love.
The best way for people to choose Jesus is to overwhelm them with love, and then point to God as to the reason why you are able to love, that we were all made with a love nature and the fall gave us a sin nature, but God’s salvation and sanctification process made me more whole and able to have that love nature again, not a complete love nature but part of it. The full sanctification will not be complete until heaven comes.
A lot of times in the Church we talk about doing certain Christ like things and not being Christ like. Philippians 2:1-11 says the very opposite, we should be like Christ, not do like Christ. When we do things like Christ and ignore the being like Christ then we are disobeying Jesus and doing the world an injustice by not being good news.
Superficial Vs. Identity
Superficial is surface level things. Something that Man is good at is making things look like other things, we can twist and mold things, we can take something that looks a certain way and change its topical factors. But we haven’t changed the underneath factors, the core of what it is. This is more understandable with humans because we can have actions that don’t line up with what we believe. I can change the way I function on the outside without changing my identity, I can change superficial factors rather easily but I can’t change my identity, only Christ Can. We try to make ourselves ‘look’ like Christ and not ‘be’ like Christ far too often. In fact when we try to look like Christ rather than be like Christ it is a type of legalism, it says that we please God by looking like Christ when God wants us to be conformed into him. Sometimes it even thinks that salvation can come from this superficial Christ-likeness. But being conformed into Christ, taking on a new identity, what something is, its nature, then it actually is that thing and we recognize that it had to be the work of God. Man can only change the external. To add, changing the superficial all the time is like forcing the hand of God to work, which is really the hands of men. When we realize true change is sanctification, something that can only be done by Christ, and our cooperation with him in that.
Car analogy
We can take a green car and paint it blue or red. Maybe even add a body kit, change some parts on it, give it new rims. Let’s say it’s a Ford mustang. We can change the engine from a 6 cylinder to an 8 cylinder. We can change all this but it’s still a ford mustang, it still has it’s identity in what it was fashioned in, a ford plant. But we can even change the decals, and little insignias so that Ford is nowhere to be found on the vehicle. It is still a ford however. It’s still a product of Ford, however if you replace enough of the parts, say, all of them over a long period of time, with new different parts, new and differnet insignia’s, is it still the same car? No! This is the sanctification process, God is taking parts of us that are damaged by the fall, the product of the fall and replacing it with the nature that he desires us to have the one that he plannedfor us to have
Cognitive Dissonance and the American Christian
Cognitive Dissonance is when we begin to believe something that is in opposition to our behavior, or we begin to exhibit behavior that is opposing what we believe. There must be a compromise on either side, either change behavior for belief or change belief to keep the Behavior. There is a seeming disconnect in American christians belief and behavior. We know too much and don’t exhibit our knowledge via action. There has to be a compromise for the person to go on living in peace without struggling in their own mind. They must justify their action. So if people believe that that they don’t actually have to exhibit what they believe because it’s normal and no one else does then they cut short the process of sanctification via cognitive dissonance. The stunt their spiritual growth into the conforming of Christ by justifying themselves. Rather than backing up the belief with right and proper action. We must continually be trying to conform our actions to our beliefs, and our beliefs to our actions if our actions are Christ like and our beliefs are not. E.G. we may love people but we have a bad theology of people, and we love for the wrong reasons, we need to get a right heart and mind about it.
Obligation, commitment, and allegiance
The se have their function because with these three, they will last besides what we believe. We may not feel our faith or completely believe something. Or persecution may be trying to persuade us to turn our backs on Christ. But once we have made a commitment to Christ and our allegiance is to him and his kingdom, even when being genuinely lieke Christ Fails. We can still show Christ and be faithful.
Humans were made for Christ’s sake and human’s sake. Humans gain a blessing of existence and God’s goodness. Christ gains a bride (the church), someone to sacrifice for, the joy of sacrificial love.
Book Idea: The last Days of Freedom: A manifesto on religious freedom and persecution
NMC
11/19/11
Workshops weren’t too cognitively stimulating for some reason. Skipped out on the third set of workshops, met mike and donna, victor’s friends.
The things that interested me most were questions from my own mind about certain aspects of community and social systems. It seems when people end up in new situations something else comes out of them, maybe motives or true beliefs about people come out. People tend to grow closer to some people but become more stand-offish to others. It very well could be people being intimidated, but that seems the arrogant and egocentric answer.
It saddens me to see that in the Church so many Christians hold contempt for each other, and leave up social barriers that should be torn down and destroyed. Ignore, glare, avoid at our brothers and sisters, yes these are very superficial expressions and seemingly innocent, but they reveal the depth of the problem. There is a type of judgment that is perfectly fine, a judgment call about people, not a stereotype but an understanding that you do not hold to, it is just a filter that you go into an interaction with. But if we try to keep this filter permanent then we do an injustice and treat a brother or sister wrongly. We must be careful not to create an us and them theology of people.
I’m not quite sure why but when Christians are raised in the Church there is something about them that they just don’t understand about people. When people were raised outside the church or raised on the mission field they just get it. They understand how important people are, they get the love of God. That every moment you have with someone is an opportunity, and not even an opportunity for self.
When we spend time with people, it should be for them and their sake. Even when we do something, and we say it is for Christ’s sake, this seems wrong. Christ genuinely cared for people, it was not a means to an end. God loves his creation that he made. If love people as a means to an end, is it really love? If we get a desired result, we are getting something out of it, and we are doing it to see that something. Yes it is good to see people baptized and confess Jesus as Lord, because all this means that they are entering in the family of God and will be with God and us forever. But Love can’t be a tool, Love should be the nature of Christians. If love is a tool, then it isn’t love. Love is doing what is best for others regardless of what it means for me.
Obligation vs. Love
– Love should be our nature, have Christ’s nature of Love points to Jesus. If we are like Christ then our life points to Christ.
Love as Device vs. nature
Obligation thinking- Makes us cut the Gospel short. When we think of mere tasks that we are obligated to fulfill, we think in this for that, consumerism love. Love is like money, and I only have so much money, type thinking.
Acto of service = build a man a house
Payment = Coming to Jesus
So if I build a man a house then he owes me to come to Jesus.
But if love isn’t a tool, obligation or currency then it functions entirely different.
I love people, I couldn’t love people before, but because of the time I’ve spent with God and the participation with him of his sanctification of my heart, soul, and mind I am a new creation.
I love this man, so I do what is best for him because I love him. I give him what his body needs, what his heart needs and what his soul and mind need. Overall I give him Jesus, Jesus is what is best for him. Jesus is a gift not a product. In the love as Obligation model I pay currency (love), to the man (people), so that he will take a product (jesus) off of my hands or that he will adopt a way of living, or an authority under which to live because I bribed him with love.
The best way for people to choose Jesus is to overwhelm them with love, and then point to God as to the reason why you are able to love, that we were all made with a love nature and the fall gave us a sin nature, but God’s salvation and sanctification process made me more whole and able to have that love nature again, not a complete love nature but part of it. The full sanctification will not be complete until heaven comes.
A lot of times in the Church we talk about doing certain Christ like things and not being Christ like. Philippians 2:1-11 says the very opposite, we should be like Christ, not do like Christ. When we do things like Christ and ignore the being like Christ then we are disobeying Jesus and doing the world an injustice by not being good news.
Superficial Vs. Identity
Superficial is surface level things. Something that Man is good at is making things look like other things, we can twist and mold things, we can take something that looks a certain way and change its topical factors. But we haven’t changed the underneath factors, the core of what it is. This is more understandable with humans because we can have actions that don’t line up with what we believe. I can change the way I function on the outside without changing my identity, I can change superficial factors rather easily but I can’t change my identity, only Christ Can. We try to make ourselves ‘look’ like Christ and not ‘be’ like Christ far too often. In fact when we try to look like Christ rather than be like Christ it is a type of legalism, it says that we please God by looking like Christ when God wants us to be conformed into him. Sometimes it even thinks that salvation can come from this superficial Christ-likeness. But being conformed into Christ, taking on a new identity, what something is, its nature, then it actually is that thing and we recognize that it had to be the work of God. Man can only change the external. To add, changing the superficial all the time is like forcing the hand of God to work, which is really the hands of men. When we realize true change is sanctification, something that can only be done by Christ, and our cooperation with him in that.
Car analogy
We can take a green car and paint it blue or red. Maybe even add a body kit, change some parts on it, give it new rims. Let’s say it’s a Ford mustang. We can change the engine from a 6 cylinder to an 8 cylinder. We can change all this but it’s still a ford mustang, it still has it’s identity in what it was fashioned in, a ford plant. But we can even change the decals, and little insignias so that Ford is nowhere to be found on the vehicle. It is still a ford however. It’s still a product of Ford, however if you replace enough of the parts, say, all of them over a long period of time, with new different parts, new and differnet insignia’s, is it still the same car? No! This is the sanctification process, God is taking parts of us that are damaged by the fall, the product of the fall and replacing it with the nature that he desires us to have the one that he plannedfor us to have
Cognitive Dissonance and the American Christian
Cognitive Dissonance is when we begin to believe something that is in opposition to our behavior, or we begin to exhibit behavior that is opposing what we believe. There must be a compromise on either side, either change behavior for belief or change belief to keep the Behavior. There is a seeming disconnect in American christians belief and behavior. We know too much and don’t exhibit our knowledge via action. There has to be a compromise for the person to go on living in peace without struggling in their own mind. They must justify their action. So if people believe that that they don’t actually have to exhibit what they believe because it’s normal and no one else does then they cut short the process of sanctification via cognitive dissonance. The stunt their spiritual growth into the conforming of Christ by justifying themselves. Rather than backing up the belief with right and proper action. We must continually be trying to conform our actions to our beliefs, and our beliefs to our actions if our actions are Christ like and our beliefs are not. E.G. we may love people but we have a bad theology of people, and we love for the wrong reasons, we need to get a right heart and mind about it.
Obligation, commitment, and allegiance
The se have their function because with these three, they will last besides what we believe. We may not feel our faith or completely believe something. Or persecution may be trying to persuade us to turn our backs on Christ. But once we have made a commitment to Christ and our allegiance is to him and his kingdom, even when being genuinely lieke Christ Fails. We can still show Christ and be faithful.
Humans were made for Christ’s sake and human’s sake. Humans gain a blessing of existence and God’s goodness. Christ gains a bride (the church), someone to sacrifice for, the joy of sacrificial love.
Book Idea: The last Days of Freedom: A manifesto on religious freedom and persecution
NMC - 11/17/11
Mysticism?
What is mysticism? It was described in the workshop as something where the natural tries to force a mixing with the spiritual or divine. Is this necessarily Bad.
To rule out for one, things like yoga, dread locks, all are rooted, originally in spiritual practices. They position was to run as far as possible from things that could be spiritually dangerous. But if the thing is removed and cut off from it’s original intent, which was religious and possibly even demonic, is it still bad?
An Analogy that I used was a business. Businesses in the U.S. are usually, greedy and self seeking. e Storing up money for yourself is selfish, like in luke 9 where the man stored up grain and Jesus condemned this type of living.
If a business owner becomes a Christian, and the business was the typical, consumeristic, materialistic greedy company. The Christian transforms the purpose, nature, and motive of the business. He redeems it. Christians redeem culture.
What is mysticism? It was described in the workshop as something where the natural tries to force a mixing with the spiritual or divine. Is this necessarily Bad.
To rule out for one, things like yoga, dread locks, all are rooted, originally in spiritual practices. They position was to run as far as possible from things that could be spiritually dangerous. But if the thing is removed and cut off from it’s original intent, which was religious and possibly even demonic, is it still bad?
An Analogy that I used was a business. Businesses in the U.S. are usually, greedy and self seeking. e Storing up money for yourself is selfish, like in luke 9 where the man stored up grain and Jesus condemned this type of living.
If a business owner becomes a Christian, and the business was the typical, consumeristic, materialistic greedy company. The Christian transforms the purpose, nature, and motive of the business. He redeems it. Christians redeem culture.
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